In 2006 The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Cincinnati's "Over the Rhine" district as one of the 11 most 'endangered' historical sites in the country. In June of this past year they launched a nationwide contest, entitled "This Place Matters", whereby communities throughout the United States could submit entries to the Trust outlining their particular historic neighborhoods, and why they were important historically and culturally...why they were vital and deserving of preservation. The Over The Rhine District won third place.
This neighborhood in Cincinnati has a rich history, and an equally rich architectural legacy, yet has seen many changes over the some 150 years since it was established. Just 10 years ago it was ground zero for one of the most recent race riots in this county's history. It is a neighborhood marked, for much of its most recent history, by crime, drugs, racial segregation and poverty. The original German immigrants who built its homes, storefronts and public halls long ago gave way to successive generations, most recently African Americans. It is an architecturally superb urban neighborhood that long ago went to seed, and was on the decline.
Yet in 1993 Arthur Frommer, the travel guide author, said this about Over The Rhine:
In all of America, there is no more promising an urban area for revitalization than your own Over-the-Rhine. When I look at that remarkably untouched, expansive section of architecturally uniform structures, unmarred by clashing modern structures, I see in my mind the possibility for a revived district that literally could rival similar prosperous and heavily visited areas.
Over The Rhine (OTR) comprises some 362 acres in Cincinnati's urban core, marked by the dense, side by side construction of mostly 3 to 5 story houses, often built above storefronts, that was typical of late 19th century cities. The neighborhood's collection of Italianate, muted Greek Revival and Queen Anne buildings represents one of the largest (some say the largest) existing examples of early urban landscapes in the country that still retain their period architectural integrity.
http://www.flickr.com/...
Just over 10 years ago, OTR was also ground zero for a race riot that lasted three days, and resulted in the kind of arson, looting and business closings that such events typically entail.
Distilled down to its simplest storyline, the tale of OTR is not much different than that of any number of other inner-urban neighborhoods located in major cities around the country. In fact, it's a depressingly familiar tale. A once flourishing neighborhood gradually loses its vibrancy and cohesiveness as the original inhabitants move away, hastened by post WWII suburbanization, and subsequent generations that replace them are more poor, more segregated due to White Flight, more lacking in nearby employment opportunities. The housing stock ages, begins to decay, is marked by absentee ownership and disinvestment. A significant number of structures become abandoned and left vacant. Eventually, the area becomes a slum, marked by all of the ills one associates with an inner city slum: poverty, crime, homelessness, and a primarily minority population with tense, antagonistic relations with local police.
Yet, there are facets of OTR's history that set it apart. Cincinnati's civic composition, to say nothing of it's character, has always been colored by its large population of German immigrants. We tend not to think of Germany when we think of the countries which have supplied us with our immigrant stock. Ireland, Italy, Eastern Europe tend to come more readily to mind, and now Mexico and other parts of Latin America. But there was a steady stream of immigrants from Germany from the mid 18th century, which became a pronounced wave in the mid 19th century. Especially after 1840, those German immigrants tended to cluster in just a small handful of American cities...Milwaukie & Racine, WI, St Louis, MO, Minneapolis/St Paul, MN and Cincinnati, Ohio.
By 1850 Cincinnati was the nation's 5th largest city (and one of the most densely populated), and its German American population numbered in the scores of thousands. The Miami & Erie Canal, completed in 1848 and connecting Lake Erie (Toledo) to the Ohio River, bisected downtown Cincinnati at its terminus. A large and almost exclusively German population lived north of the canal, which they nicknamed "The Rhine" because it reminded them of the river in their homeland, and each workday they would travel on foot over the bridge which spanned the canal (uber'm Rhine) into the downtown district where they worked. The community they built there reflected the architecture of the German cities they had emigrated from, as well as the social structure. The buildings were cheek to jowl close, Italianate in style, multistoried homes often built atop storefronts on the ground level. They often shared common walls. The neighborhood was dotted with churches as well as meeting halls...social gathering places where they would congregate to sing, drink, talk.
By the time of the 1900 census Cincinnati's population was more than 40% German American. It has always been the most 'German' major city in a state that is, compared to most, already remarkably German in its makeup. Even as late as the 2000 census, Cincinnati was determined by demographic researchers to have the third largest concentration in America of people claiming German extraction.
OTR's heydays were between 1860 and 1900, when most of the buildings still standing today were constructed. It's growing German population acquired enough political clout to demand and receive bilingual public education in German, and a number of German language newspapers competed for readers within the community. In 1878 the Music Hall was constructed in OTR, one of the largest and oldest of its kind in the country. It epitomized the architecture and vibrancy of the community. http://michaeljamescasey.com/...
OTR became the center of Cincinnati's thriving brewing industry, home to at least 15 of some 3 dozen Cincinnati breweries. At it's peak, Christian Moerlein Brewery alone encompassed three entire city blocks. Of course, America's bizarre and ill fated experiment with Prohibition put them, and all the rest of the brewers, out of business.
At the same time, Cincinnati's location on the banks of the Ohio River, dividing North from South during the Civil War, and it's prominence as a major stop along the "underground railroad" of African Americans escaping slavery, has also contributed to its having a significant Black population. And though the rioting of 2001 is the most recent example of racial tensions boiling over, it's certainly not the first. In 1829, Cincinnati's population was almost 10% Black, or about 2,000 people. That same year, a White mob mobilized to violently terrorize that Black population, and ultimately drove about half of them to flee the young city. 7 years later, in 1836, another unruly White mob managed to secure and fire a canon three times into a Black neighborhood which then existed east of Sixth Street in the city.
During the Civil War, White's in Cincinnati were constantly hearing dire warnings about the deluge of Blacks that would stream across the River from Kentucky once the South lost the war and displace them in the workplace, stealing their jobs and livelihoods. Indeed, at the outset of the Civil War the majority of Cincinnatians sympathized with the South, with whom their commercial dealings were deeply entwined. Irish immigrants, amongst the poorest in the city, had several violent conflicts with Blacks in the city, among whom they often lived and with whom they competed for jobs along the river loading and offloading barges and steamers.
It wasn't, however, until the 1940's that Cincy's Black population began a steep increase, as two forces converged. The inner city population been declining and moving to the suburbs since after WWI, as industries left the urban core and decentralized. At the same time, southern Blacks began migrating north, and settled into the urban neighborhoods that were being vacated. OTR, by this time, had lost much of its German character and many of its inhabitants. In the late 20's ithad lost so many people, and housing vacancy was such that the city even considered razing parts of the neighborhood. The Great Depression derailed those plans. By the time of WWII it was becoming a "Hillbilly Ghetto" of poor Kentuckians and Apalachian economic refugees. There were some Blacks moving in as well, but at this time there were other Black enclaves in downtown's West End.
In the 50's and 60's the urban landscaped of downtown Cincinnati was dramatically altered by the construction of Interstate 75, an industrial park and several housing projects which had the effect of uprooting and forcing thousands of the city's Black inhabitants to relocate from the West End. A large number of them moved into OTR, where the aging housing stock had turned it into the last affordable inner city neighborhood for poor people to live in. Between 1960 and 1980, OTR lost 80% of its White population in the midst of this demographic turmoil, and OTR became an overwhelmingly Black slum. In 1980 the mostly Black population was just 7,300, far lower than the number of poor Whites (25,000) that had lived there just 20 years earlier, let alone the peak population of some 50,000 in its heyday. Almost 1 in 4 buildings in the neighborhood lay vacant.
In 1979 the city embarked upon the road to having OTR designated as a historic neighborhood, in light of the size of the district and its architectural significance. There was a vocal group within the community, however, that opposed the move. They saw it as merely a move by developers to increase the value of the real estate and thereby increase rents, pricing them out of the only neighborhood they could afford. Preservation, to many, was a thinly veiled strategy for displacing the poor. Many of the Black (and White) inhabitants whom remained in OTR were receiving section 8 housing subsidies, and any significant rent hikes would stretch their budgets to the breaking point. It was a political hot potato for 4 years that almost didn't come to pass. In 1983 then Democratic Governor Richard Celeste asked that the request for Historic Designation be returned to him for "further review", after lobbying from community activists representing inhabitants of OTR. Ultimately, however, OTR was designated a Historic Neighborhood by the National Trust for Historic Places, which bestowed tax breaks to property owners who made improvements which met that group's guidelines.
From that point on, the fate of OTR was more or less sealed. It would be preserved, to one extent or another, and their would be gentrification and redevelopment. The fate of those currently living there was an open question, but concessions had been won from the city to include a minimum threshold of some 5,500 low income housing units. That concession, however, was fiercely opposed by some in the real estate development camp, who feared that it would doom OTR to a fate of remaining an island of Black poverty in the city.
By the middle 90's OTR was in the midst of it's first renaissance. Young urban professionals, artists, hipsters and some start up businesses were moving into the neighborhood and renovating buildings. Deposits were being put down upon apartments that hadn't yet been cleared up trash that covered their floors. There was a vibe in the neighborhood that things were about to change. Yet, the challenges were still there. Nobody had waved a magic wand over OTR and made all of the ills associated with urban poverty and racial tensions disappear. One person who moved into an apartment in OTR early on in the process, full of enthusiasm to refurbish the area, speaks of having his car broken into three times in the first month he lived there, and opening the front door of his apartment on two other occasions to find a prostitute plying her trade, on his stoop (the same one both times).
Then, in April of 2001, a White policeman killed an unarmed Black man in the neighborhood. It proved to be the straw that broke the community's back, after 13 prior instances of Black men being killed in confrontations with Cincinnati's mostly White police force. A planned demonstration in OTR errupted into violence, and a riot ensued which lasted 3 days. The neighborhood was rent by racial tensions and the damage caused many businesses to close or flee. It has been said that the redevelopment of OTR was setback by at least 10 years because of the event.
To this day, their are many vacant buildings in OTR. Nonprofit groups have acquired many properties over the last few years, but some criticize them for what is called a "buy 'em, and board 'em," strategy. Still, things are unmistakably getting better, even as some of the old problems of crime, drugs and homelessness persist. The brewery district is undergoing a rebirth, with Christian Moerlein reopening its brewery. There is a vibrant entertainment district now, with restaurants, art galleries, coffee shops, live music. Hip retail establishments have opened up, as well as brewpubs.
The OTR neighborhood's inhabitants aren't numerous enough or affluent enough to support these businesses, so the district must depend upon visitors coming to the area from the surrounding suburbs. A trolley line has been built to facilitate that.
Many do come to the district. OTR was recently voted Best neighborhood in Cincinnati by City Beat magazine, and there are articles in the New York Times from time to time that speak glowingly of the strides that have been made in the past 10 years, and how the area has a buzz of energy about it. Yet, there are some in Cincinnati who still avoid the place, and associate OTR with crime, danger and racial hostility.
The story isn't written yet, at least not the last chapter. I wish it the best. I haven't been there since 2002, about 1 year after the riot. I was driving with my sister from where I was living at the time, about 2 hours east of Cincy. to see John Hiatt at Bogarts, a club close to University of Cincinnati on Vine St. I got off of the freeway after dark on the wrong exit, and ended up somewhere in OTR...completely lost. I'll be totally honest...I found myself driving up a street on which my sister and I were the only white people around, and people were crossing the street slowly in front of my car and staring us down. It was tense, and I grew up in LA and have driven through plenty of Black areas there...that night, in that place, felt way different...a way different vibe.
I wonder what it feels like now, ten years later? Hopefully there are some readers who live there who can shed some light, and bring the story up to date.